Sensationally simple beef ragu

Love-hate relationships – we all have them. Some of us have them with food, with religion, or with the gym. I know people who have love-hate relationships with their family members, their pets, or even themselves. People love and hate their jobs, their country’s government, their exes and their kids. These past few weeks, the world has had a love-hate relationship with freedom of speech, and the British Government has had a love-hate relationship with the Interwebz. Yes, it’s the place where videos of fluffy kittens flourish, but it is also the dark corner where potential evildoers can hide and hang out with each other, plotting. As with everything in life though, it’s never quite so black and white. The Internet is neither evil nor good – at least, no more so than a knife. It has the potential to facilitate harm, but it also has the incredible capacity to bring people together to collaborate on projects for the greater good of the world, or simply to bring knowledge and ideas to people who might not otherwise have had access to them.

I have a personal love-hate relationship with the Internet sometimes. It is the thief of time (hello Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, I am talking to YOU!) and it sucks me in and takes me away from real life relationships and activities. Shall I go out and see friends today? Nah, there’s that blog post I need to write and all those photos I need to edit… But then it also kept me sane when I was trapped in a French hospital after surgery for a broken leg last year, allowing me to communicate with friends and family around the world during some of the darkest hours of my life. It has been the conduit that has made possible this blog and all the wonderful benefits it has brought me. And in the past week it has delivered at least three totally absorbing ideas to my virtual doorstep: this article which is required reading for everybody; words of wisdom from a man with 15 rescue cats which I’ll elaborate on in a future post soon; and the concept of a gift to your future self.

In a first year philosophy textbook that I once borrowed from a friend, there was a question for students to ponder: how can you demonstrate that humans are more evolved than animals? After much thought, I came up with the answer that we are able to make sacrifices in the present for the sake of our future enjoyment or wellbeing. You sacrifice time in front of the TV to go out into the cold for a run, because you want to stay fit and healthy in the future. You sacrifice spending money on a new pair of shoes now because you are saving up to buy a house in the future. You sacrifice that sice of gooey chocolate cake now because you want to fit into your red dress for a party next weekend. Of course, that sounds like no fun at all because all you are doing is “sacrificing” – but what if, instead of viewing it as a sacrifice, you viewed it as a gift from your present self to your future self? I find that it’s a lot easier to drag myself to the gym on a Saturday morning if I think of it in terms of being a gift of continued health and mobility that I am sending to my future self. Loathe picking up your clothes from the floor and rinsing out your breakfast dishes before you go to work? Think of it as a gift to your future self of coming home to a tidy house. Annoyed at being designated driver and being the only sober one at the party? Consider it as a gift that you are sending to your un-hungover future self. I’ve been turning the idea over in my mind like a pebble in my pocket and I love it. And it certainly makes me think a little more carefully about what I put on the luggage belt of life today, because I know that that suitcase will re-enter my life on a different carousel at some point in the future and I want to make sure it is filled with gifts, not dirty laundry.

This week, I was delighted to receive a gift from my 2014 self, lovingly placed in the freezer: a sensational beef ragu that I made in large quantities one weekend before we went on holiday. I have always been a ragu lurker, checking out other people’s beautifully shredded pots of slow-cooked meat without ever daring to try my own. But eventually in the chilly December days, the longing became irresistible and I had a go. The good news is that a ragu is blissfully simple to make – all you need is time – and does not use expensive cuts of meat – so a win-win situation all round. Common threads running through all ragu recipes that I found seem to be a cheap cut of meat, a soffrito mix, wine and tomatoes, which will give you this basic ragu recipe. If you do not like anchovies, don’t panic – you can taste no trace of fishiness in the final product, but do not leave them out as they impart a wonderful umami savouriness. Of course, you can add different meats and as many bells and whistles as you like, but if you want to keep things simple, this is your go-to recipe. The meat is literally shredded by the end of the cooking, and absorbs all of the flavour of the cooking liquid to result in a richly flavoured and deeply satisfying winter dish. I served mine ona bed of orzo pasta with a glass of Rioja and if I’d had any in the fridge I might have topped with with chopped parsley and grated Parmesan.

A ragu is a classic dish of meat that is cooked until it is tender enough to shred with a fork, and because it uses cheap but flavourful cuts of meat, it is also packed with flavour. It's ridiculously simple to make and satisfying to eat on a chilly evening.

Author: Jeanne Horak-Druiff

Recipe type: Entree

Cuisine: Italian

Serves: 6

Ingredients

1.2 kg beef brisket (steaks or a joint)

olive oil

salt and pepper

1 large onion, diced

2 stalks of celery, diced

1 carrots, diced

2 cloves garlic, crushed

4-5 tinned anchovy fillets , chopped

nutmeg

300ml white wine

1 x 410g tin chopped tomatoes

about 450g passata

Instructions

Pat the meat with paper towels to remove moisture. Season with salt and pepper. In a large cast-iron pot, heat just enough olive oil to cover the bottom. When very hot, brown the meat on all sides, then remove from the pot and keep warm.

Add a little more oil to the pot and then add the onions, carrots, celery, garlic, and anchovies. Cook for about five minutes, stirring all the time. Add the salt, pepper and a good pinch of ground nutmeg, then add the wine and cook for 3-4 minutes.

Add the meat back to the pot together with the chopped tomatoes, the passata and 375 mls of water. Once the pot is simmering, reduce to a low heat and allow it to bubble away gently for about three hours. Don't forget to stir the pot from time to time to make sure it is not stickingm and add extra water if the sauce seems to be getting too thick.

After three hours, remove just the meat from the pot and use two forks to shred it. Pick out any bones or gristle and discard. When all the meat is shredded, return it to the pot and stir well to mix with the sauce. Continue to simmer gently for another 1-2 hours, stirring occasionally. Add water if the sauce getes too thick.

You’re exactly right — it does feel like a gift from your past self when you defrost a fantastic meal from the freezer that you cooked up in a huge batch weeks or months before. I love slow cooked meat, whether it’s ragu, a stew or a curry. Lovely post and thanks for sharing one of my recipes!

Glad you liked the post, and I adore finding little frozen gift parcels to myself in my freezer – especially when I get home late from work and I am tired and not in the mood for cooking. Slow coked meat rocks – and you can treat yourself to a wonderful meal on the cheap!

I do go through phases of keeping good sauce, stews and rag us in the freezer. I could do with one right now and as for brisket, it is one of my favourite cuts of beef. I love a boiled brisket and the beef stock tastes amazing too. I bet it brings a gorgeous flavour to a ragu. I also love anchovies for their depth of flavour, a lovely addition!

I always have a fantasy of making a double batch of something every weekend for the coming week, but somehow it ends up happening only once in a blue moon! That said, I have a number of containers of semi-identifiable stuff in my freezer at the moment – some stocks, some frozen veggies from the alotment, some soups, the odd stew… Will be an interesting surprise to open some of them! Brisket stew was one of the first proper meals I ever cooked without parental supervision so I have a huge soft spot for it. And I first got the anchovies idea from Jamie Oliver who does a recipe for green beans with melted anchovies that’s so fab!

Hahahaha clearly you don’t know the age of some of the stuff lurking in the vintage section of my freezer ;o) I am going to live by the mantra of the gift to my future self in 2015. You can apply it to absolutely everything! The ragu is pretty awesome, even if I say so myself… 😉

I batch cook now and again though haven’t really thought of it in those terms as a future gift to myself, but of course it is because it means I can have a delicious meal without having to cook that night. Great post Jeanne and the ragu looks so tasty.

Oh yes I think it does make us stand apart from the animals when we are capable of seeing into the future and knowing that this bag of ragu that is going into the freezer will – sometime in the future nourish and satisfy me. Period. Animals cannot do that. Love this on so many levels!

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Jeanne Horak-Druiff is a freelance food and travel writer as well as a recipe developer and photographer. She is a South African by birth and a Londoner by choice who has been writing about food and travel on Cooksister since 2004. She is a popular speaker on food photography and writing has also contributed articles, recipes and photos to a number of online and print publications. Please get in touch to commission work from her. Read More…